Meetings, Teaching, and Her.

"Not that we don't enjoy your company, but what do we owe your company to this time?" Adagio asked as soon as she returned from using vegetable oil to remove the duct tape without ripping her hair out and then washing it out of her hair. She could hear the Kama Itachi sisters, as they had been introduced, and Pipsqueak watching Pirates of the Caribbeans in the living room.

"What do you know about my sister Tamamo no Mae?" Koemi asked.

"She makes us at our worst look tame." Aria said as she hunted up one of the ash trays for Aiko as the tanuki turned a pair of red ceramic ball into a pipe and began packing it with tobacco. "I see you still pull out your testicles in polite company." She said with a smirk.

"THEY ARE NOT TESTICLES!!!" Aiko yelled as she blushed bright red. "That myth was started by crude farmers who thought it was funny to call them that since we tanukis carried them in pouches that is traditionally worn near the crotch."

"So you could say that at one point you were a girl with a pair of magical balls between her legs?" Sonata said with a giggle.

"She is definitely a girl with a pair of balls on her." Aria added before both of them burst out laughing at the fuming tanuki.

"I hate you so much right now." Aiko hissed at them.

"And we love you too, but back to Tamamo no Mae." Adagio said as Sunset tried not to snicker. "She is over 3,500 years old and has left a trail of destroyed kingdoms, death, and depravity in her wake across India, China, and Japan before being killed with a pair of enchanted arrows and a magical sword after being hunted to exhaustion by an army of samurai. Even then she still was able to kill two emperors and the rock that marked her grave killed everything that got too close to it. Though most legends state her body was taken back to the capital, I shared the accounts I read with both of you of one of the samurai that was there and he made it very clear that they buried her there and spread the rumors of her being buried elsewhere to prevent anyone from reviving her while leaving knowledge of what they did in case she ever did come back."

"Well it didn't work because someone had to return her soul to her and that brought her back. She's now loose and headed for Canterlot and has already recruited an army of magical beings." Aiko said as she lit her pipe.

"I said I was sorry, but she is my sister." Koemi said. "Adagio, you would do anything to put one of your sisters spirit to rest if their soul got lost wouldn't you?"

"Normally I would agree, but your sister is not the type of person that normal applies to." Adagio said while thinking before asking, "And why would she be coming here? Canterlot is barely a mid sized city at best and I would think she would make a bee line for Washington D.C. given her track record."

"The Fall Formal and the Battle of the Bands." Sunset said. "The Fall Formal lit up the school like a spot light that attracted you three and the Battle of the Bands was seen from miles away, but was shrugged off by the media as laser light special effects that overloaded when it got out of hand. If you think about it it should have attracted someone, magical being or a human, to begin investigating what's going on here. I mean unlike their magic," She said gesturing to Koemi, Aiko, and Toshi. "Which you said can't be detected by any scientific equipment or your magic, Equestrian magic does leave traces and can be detected if only because of what is missing afterwards."

"Wait, your saying Equestrian magic can be detected and tracked?" Aria asked.

"I'm more interested in what she meant by 'missing afterwards'." Aiko said.

"After the Battle of the Bands I did some experiments to find out how magic worked here, just before those idiot kids started Anon-a-miss, and discovered something when I tried finding anything that could pick up magic." Sunset explained. "I found that a sensitive enough geiger counter that Pinkie and Fluttershy found for me picked up on that there was less background radiation around the journal I use to write to Twilight with and that it dropped all the way to being undetectable when I used it to send a message to her. From there I worked out that there was less pollutants in the air after we ponied up, especially after Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash pony up, and most likely Aria as well, because of the wings."

"Hmm... That does make sense if you think about it." Adagio said as she thought about it. "The wings, the ears, and the longer hair have to come from something since you can't get something from nothing. Same with the energy, it's drawing it from the background radiation which is everywhere and the most abundant natural energy source available."

"Why background radiation and not gravity or static electricity?" Toshi asked.

"Everything, including our bodies, contributes to background radiation in one form or another." Koemi pointed out. "Heat, electricity, even radioactive radiation like the kind detected by a geiger counter, plugging into that would be an almost unlimited source of energy since it might seem small, but it's continuous and everywhere."

"The problem is, other than when we play music, we can't seem to use it despite having an unlimited power source." Sonata pointed out.

"Twilight thinks it's because of how prevalent music is in Equestria." Sunset pointed out. "I mean I can't remember when a Heartsong wasn't in the newspapers and treated like bad traffic or the weather is treated here."

"They did tend to pop up a lot." Adagio said. "We kind of either used them or just stepped aside if we saw one about to start until it was over since they are almost impossible to fight."

"Umm... What's a Heartsong?" Koemi asked.

"It's a type of extremely powerful magic that can cause entire cities to just start singing and dancing for no real reason... Think of it being like if the world did work like a Broadway musical. We mostly just put up with them because of how useful they can be." Sunset explained. "Like when there was a bad cave-in at a mine and a Heartsong started and they dug through 100 feet of rock and saved over 157 trapped miners in less than five minutes with no casualties. Then there was another time when an entire city was rebuilt in three and a half minutes after a very bad earthquake because of another one."

"Hmm... Have any of you tried to cast spells by singing yet?" Toshi asked as he considered what they said. "I mean if music is as important as magic is in Equestria then it would make sense that maybe the key to one is also the other."

"Maybe... but that would mean anyone exposed directly to Equestrian magic and has transformed at least once would potentially be able to use Equestrian magic." Sunset said.

"And with what you said about Heartsongs Tamamo no Mae would have a potentially powerful tool if it can be transmitted over T.V and radio." Toshi added. "Which begs the question of just how many people are we talking about?"

"Us four and the Rainbooms, so about nine people." Aria said.

"Eleven actually," Sunset said. "I transformed Snips and Snails during the Fall Formal."

With that Sonata started giggling before asking, "Can you imagine those two trying to start a Heartsong with that caterwauling they called rapping at the Battle of the Bands? I mean I love Snails to death, but it took forever to explain that rap is like the blue, you have too experience life in a certain way to be able to actually do it right."

"I know." Aria said with a laugh. "At least they can't start one with their marching band instruments, I mean a tuba and a trombone don't exactly lend themselves well to singing."

"Yeah, but your forgetting that an autotune can make their voices sound like angels." Adagio said. "But all of this depends on how much she knows about what has been happening around here."

"Exactly and she stole the files you sent us about it along with the profiles on all of the Rainbooms." Aiko said. "Though you were kind of vague on what the Battle of the Bands actually did to you."

"Oh that's easy," Sonata said with a smile. "It stripped us of our powers and immortality and cured us of our medical problems."

"...Sonata, you do remember the talk we had about not sharing certain thing until we are sure how it will be taken." Adagio said with a slight frown. "You remember all the problems that that religion Aleister Crowley created caused after talking to you."

"Yeah, but if it wasn't for his books Tree Hugger and Fluttershy might never have met and fallen in love." Sonata pointed out.

"One couple doesn't make up for turning a countless number of people into a laughing stock over the years because they like to dance around the woods naked." Aria grumbled.

"So your saying that you've lost your powers and can't help us with her." Koemi said with a sad look.

"Not quite." Adagio said. "We may have lost our powers as sirens, but we still have other skills honed and refined for a thousand years, resources both old and new that can be brought to bear, and all four of us know first hand that Equestrian magic can depower powerful foes. Besides we never mentioned the Heartsong in those files because we didn't even think about it at the time."

"Also I can ask Twilight for help with research from Equestria as well." Sunset said. "I mean I might not have a thousand of years of personal experience to draw upon, but I have a way to contact Princess Twilight Sparkle who has access to the Canterlot Royal Library and the archives."

"Having a direct line of information from where this kind of magic comes from would give us another advantage." Toshi said as he thought about it. "But information alone won't be enough, we will still need to find Tamamo no Mae and anyone she has with her, keep tabs on everyone that could use Equestrian magic, and figure out how to deal with her. All of which is harder since without your powers we now have to protect you three as well."

"Just because we lost our powers doesn't mean we are completely powerless." Adagio said with a smirk. "Do you really think we spent a thousand years here without putting something aside for just in case someone ever found a way to neutralize our powers? Trust me, we might have avoided most of the magical beings in this world, but we have had a few run-ins with normal humans who found or created a few actual magical items and kept some of the actually useful stuff."

"Wait, you have magical items and you haven't already pulled them out yet?" Sunset asked. "I mean I would have studied them and worked out how they worked by now."

"Didn't need them when we had powers and didn't really needed them afterwards until now, besides the magic they have is like Koemi's, undetectable to the point that if we hadn't actually seen them used and then tried it out for ourselves later we wouldn't have even have known they had magic." Aria told her. "Besides, it's like Adagio said, they're for just in case." Getting up Aria then motioned to Sonata, "Come on, let's go get the crate."

"OK" Sonata said as she followed Aria, "but I'm calling dibs on the battle axe!"

"Sonata you're the only one that thing likes and hasn't actually tried to kill yet." Aria pointed out.

"Thirty minutes." Northern Spy said as he graded papers at the desk in the basement. He didn't even bother looking behind himself at the girl tied with her hands behind her back to a wooden chair.

"How is this here fair?" Apple Bloom complained. "Y'all said you would make this fair."

Without turning he said, "I didn't use hand cuffs or strip you naked, zip tie your hands and feet to a metal chair bolted to the floor, put a gag in your mouth, and a bag over your head. You have everything you need to escape in the time we agreed to. All you need to do is grab the pull and ring the bell and I will take you out to see a movie and eat in a restaurant instead of suffering through another 4 hour training session and drinking one of my nutrient shakes. You just need to work it out and remember what I said about the human mind."

"Yeah, yeah," Apple Bloom said as she tried to just loosen one part of the knot. "'Only idiots call the human mind their most powerful weapon when in reality it is actually much more than that and is closer to the ultimate Swiss army knife.'"

"Then why are you still playing with knots instead of taking in everything and working it out by now?" Northern Spy asked as he marked an A on Snails paper. He then turned and looked at her while holding up Snails paper. "Look at Snails, he was a D+ student at best before according to Harshwhinny's notes on students and I have to agree when I looked at his old papers, but now he is actually making A's on a regular basis. Why? because someone actually figured out that he is a slow but deep thinker and has been helping him bring his grades up through homework, reports, and extra-credit assignments, all of which give him time to work it out slowly in his head."

"What does that there have to do with this?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Simple, sometimes the solution is obvious, but we get caught up in the way we think they should be done that we over look the answer. Snails has all the classic signs of a slow but deep thinking genius, but everything in school is geared towards too fast a pace for anyone to see it. The same can be said for you right now, you're so fixated on the knots that you can't see the solution because of it." Northern Spy said as he went back to grading papers.

Apple Bloom sat there thinking about it as she tapped her foot and then stopped and looked down at her feet. Her feet that had not been tied to the chair legs. Chair legs that were not bolted to the floor. Slowly she stood up with the chair and looked at the bell pull. She then bit the bell pull and rang the bell with fifteen minutes left on the timer.

Tamamo no Mae exited the mirror with Lotus since Aloe had returned to Canterlot earlier to take care of the Spa while she had her meeting with Lilith. She gave Bobu a smile before saying, "Lotus says that there is a young woman that everyone should know with an appointment today. So would you be a dear and go and make sure everything has been taken care of for me at the house." Without a word Bobu got up and left.

Ten minutes later Tamamo no Mae sat in the steam room wearing a towel, luxuriating in warmth as she waited. Around her she permeated the steam with her magic as it filled the air with a hard to describe hint of an exotic perfume and just enough pheromones. She had perfected this over the millenniums of seducing many into her service, but now she tweaked it to only catch her attention while waiting for her so she could tried something she had never tried before, to seduce a partner who would be more than another almost mindless thrall that would be willing to die for her but short on actually being able to think for themselves. What she needed was someone capable of independent thoughts and action, who could plan, reason, and think for themselves, but whom she can be sure would remain some what loyal to her.

When the younger woman with beautiful white skin and gorgeous purple hair entered she couldn't help but pause at the sight of an Asian woman that seemed to revel in her sensual beauty. Tamamo no Mae couldn't help but smile as she took a breath before saying, "Oh, I'm terribly sorry for staring like that."

"Think nothing of it." Tamamo no Mae said as she made a few minor adjustments when she saw she had almost enthralled her. "I'm use to it from fashion designers, artists, etc., but then again you probably deal with the same thing a lot."

"I did until that horrid hacker the news keeps calling a cyber vigilantly decided to target my school because of my little sister and her friends foolish little indiscretion they called Anon-a-miss." Rarity said with bitterness in her voice and not even thinking about the fact that she was telling a complete stranger about her troubles as she sat down on the bench and looked down at her hands bunched into fists. "Oh if I ever find who that 'Kijo' is I will give them a piece of my mind, but the damage is done and my dreams of becoming a fashionista are ruined. Now the only offers I am getting is from perverts and tabloids while my patron has had to cut all ties with me and remain in Brazil until his lawyers say it is safe to return."

Tamamo no Mae let out a laugh before saying, "Oh I know a thing or two about having plans come crashing down around me. The trick is getting back up, dusting yourself off, and tweaking your plans here and there before trying again without the same mistakes you made the first time." She said, "Maybe you don't need a patron. Maybe what you really need is a mentor who has been through the same kind of things you have been through and with resources to help you."

"Yes, that would be ideal, but it's not like I am going to just meet them here at the spa." Rarity said then without even thinking about it she continued. "Besides how would I even find someone who could understand having a magic that seems to only work when I was playing music with my friends before Anon-a-miss and Kijo tore us all apart and Sunset Shimmer and those Dazzlings stomping it all into the ground just to be sure."

"Ah, but they are not really the problem is it?" Tamamo no Mae asked as she feed just enough magic into the steam to relax the young woman more while enticing more out of her.

"No." Rarity said as she felt the steam just melt away her stress from her troubles. "I have always been realistic enough to know we would drift apart after school. I mean at best the Rainbooms might get a few records, but in the end we would drift apart because of our different lives. No, it's the fact that my dreams are in tatters and last night when I tried to use my keytar to pony up nothing happened."

"Really? Why were you trying to 'pony up'?" Tamamo no Mae pressed while trying to not enthrall her.

"Oh, because I have never felt more alive or inspired than when I pony up and feel the magic just flowing through me." Rarity told her. "Ever since it began I have found that if I get stuck on a design problem I can just pony up and it inspires me with just the right new ideals and new ways that not only solve my problem, but improves it as well. Only now it's all gone when I need it the most."

Tweaking her magic some, Tamamo no Mae took a gamble by adding fear into it and then asked, "What if it isn't gone? What if you just need help to get it flowing again? How far would you be willing to go to get it back and maybe even more than you ever dreamed possible?"

Rarity's thoughts raced as she thought about it, her mind racing with the ideals of not doing anything and eventually ending up a trophy wife for a rich man who would eventually replace her with a younger woman or ending up selling her body only to die cold and alone in a hospital bed from a disease or maybe even dying alone, friendless, and forgotten, nothing more than the crazy old cat lady with only a small grave stone to ever mark she had been there. "no... No... NO! I WILL NOT DIE LIKE THAT!!! I refuse to die a used up toy of some fat, stupid, petty man! I refuse to wither away in some hospital or in a house full of cats without love! I will not be just a grave stone! I will not be just another name on some stupid, tacky rock alone and unloved. I refuse it! I will make them remember me! My name is Rarity Belle and I will make them remember my name long after I am gone no matter what it takes or who I have to crush to do it!"

"Well then Miss Rarity Belle," Tamamo no Mae said as she stood up and dropped her towel, her nine golden tails with pure white tips fanned out behind her and her golden fox ears with white tips replaced her human ears. She let her magic flow through the room and replaced the fear with hope while she enjoyed the stunned look on Rarity's face. "Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Lady Duckweed and I have come a long way to meet you." She could already see it in Rarity's eyes that she had her and just needed to pull her in. "Trust me, with my help, not only will no one ever forget your name, but your name will be legendary. My only question is how far are you willing to go to have more magic than you ever imagined possible?"

A girl looked at her equipment and saw the spike in the energy. It had taken a while to find a way to detect the energy that happened when the background radiation dropped suddenly and then to build the hand scanner, but now she knew what she was doing and soon her latest detector would be finished. She then frowned as she noticed it was on a different wavelength than the other energy she had been tracking. "Spike, I think there is more to this than we originally thought." Behind her her dog just barked as he wagged his tail.

Author's Note

Due to family health problems my updates may become erratic.

In myths and legends the Tanuki are said to have a pair of magical balls they can turn into anything they need, help them fly, and do anything else as well.

Expect lots of balls jokes and suggestions are welcome for torturing Aiko with.

As for the siren's magical arsenal, well just think about it, of course they would have had run-ins with normal humans who have gotten their hands on magical items and acted like children with a box of matches. They would just take the toy away and either kept it or got rid of it. Don't worry, they won't be over powered (with the exception of Sonata's Battle Axe, which is living and hates every living creature but her for some odd reason) and they will be limited by being unable to carry them all the time (schools get very cross with people carrying weapons for some reason).

Yes, Northern Spy and Apple Bloom are back and you get a quick glimpse of his parenting skill.

Welcome to my parlor said the spider to the fly. If you can guess where this is going with Rarity then you earned your self an imaginary cookie.

I figure Tamamo no Mae's magical presence would cause ripples that would effect everyone's favorite brainiac's investigation and up her appearance by at least two to three months before the friendship games.